Portland Public Schools Suspends "Community Service" Program at César Chávez K-8 School

RUBBISH: Fernando Aguilar, 9, says he had to clean César Chávez K-8 School in North Portland after he got in trouble for playing four square too aggressively. A Portland Public Schools official says the play amounted to bullying.
Portland Public Schools
controversial discipline program at César Chávez K-8 School

"The program has been put on hold until it can be reviewed," Christine Miles, a PPS spokeswoman, wrote in a one-sentence statement to WW Thursday afternoon.

Wednesday, WW broke the news that North Portland's César Chávez school employed a "community service" program to address students' unruly, defiant or childish behavior. It came in response to Superintendent Carole Smith's mandate that principals use suspensions and expulsions far less frequently.

The program kept kids in school but removed them from lunchtime and recess and asked them to perform tasks that included cleaning walls, floors, desks and doorknobs, as well as picking up trash in bathrooms, hallways and outdoor areas. 

Miles on Tuesday defended the program on behalf of Smith, calling the program "restorative" while simultaneously describing it as punitive. "For example, one child really enjoyed cleaning desks," Miles says, "and then they realized, 'Oh, we need to give her a different community service.'"

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